The present invention relates to transmitting and receiving data between electronic filing systems by means of facsimile over a public network. More particularly, this invention relates to a method for determining whether a receiving end system is a conventional facsimile or an electronic filing system capable of receiving facsimile as well as data other than facsimile type data such as code data, and to change the control of the sending end electronic filing system accordingly.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication (KOKAI) No. 63-290451 discloses a conventional remote document filing system in which a facsimile apparatus is connected to one end of the telephone network while a document filing control apparatus is connected to the other end. The facsimile apparatus includes an input device for inputting service information and a transmission device for transmitting the inputted service information. The document filing control apparatus includes a receiving device for receiving the service information transmitted from the facsimile apparatus and a processing device for processing various types of document files based upon the transmitted service information. In this conventional system, the service information is transmitted from the facsimile to the document filing control apparatus prior to the execution of facsimile communication protocol (CCITT recommendation T.30) therebetween.
Incidentally, large-sized images, color images, and code information cannot be transmitted with any existing facsimile communication protocol, though they can be handled in an electronic filing system.
In the prior techniques as described above, a sending end system can only recognize that the receiving end system is a facsimile. Accordingly, large-sized images, color images, code information or the like cannot be transmitted or received even between electronic filing systems owing to the restrictions of facsimile communication protocol.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for an electronic filing system to check to see if the destination system connected via the public network therewith is an electric filing system or a facsimile, and if the destination system is an electronic filing system, to control the processing of the source electronic filing system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method which enables the transferring of data which otherwise cannot be transmitted owing to the restrictions of the facsimile communication protocol even between the electronic filing systems having similar functions. Such data includes large-size images, color images, code information or the like, which are handed in an electronic filing system.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method which enables the destination system to be notified of the constitution of the sending end electronic filing system and the control information such as the treatable image size and the optical disk capacity together with the fact that the sending end system is an electronic filing system.